I have a chance to pick one of these up locally for a great price from a trusted source, but I've never used/heard one yet. Anyone have any experience/comments about this machine? I am only familiar w/ the MTR series. Any similarities sonically? This is just for home use (right now I've got the whole Fatso and HEDD to DAW thing happening and am looking at this machine for cutting drums).
Many thanks,

Hey Jules,
This machine is big... a little smaller than a washing machine. Runs at 15/30ips. I think the green one you mentioned was probably an MX5050 which is a much smaller 1/2" machine.

Yeah, I'll probably use one track for SMPTE, but it's no big deal... I don't use many mics on drums so losing the track won't matter.

I'm really digging the Fat-Hedd kit! I use the fatso for "processing" on the way in to the HEDD (not the 192). I like to hit it HARD w/ the compressors off. It really rounds things out. I usually don't use the HEDD processing while tracking w/ Fatso though... unless I'm going for something really "sticky" and then I combine the 2 processes. Sometimes I use the HEDD process on the full mix if I stay all in the computer. Man, if I could only afford a whole rack of this $*^t...

I owned an MX-70 16-track for many years, and loved it! I only regrettably sold it because I moved to New York, and it wasn't a practical way to record in my apartment. I can only imagine that the 8-track sounds even better. Nowadays I fantasize about getting another used one, and recording to it before dumping to Pro Tools. All the stuff I recorded to the MX-70 sounds better than what I record directly into my Mix Plus system...

Thanks for your help! I've narrowed down my choice between the MX-70 and and Ampex 440-8 1" 8 track. Anyone dare to compare the 2 sonically? I'm not concerned with the functional differences... I know the 440 is nowhere near as complex or "modern" as the MX70.
Thanks again!
Martin

The following is from a RAP post John Klett answered concerning 1" 8 track choices:

The MCI JH-110C would be the most practical and there are plenty of them
around. They are fairly easy to service in my opinion. Advantages are
good tension control (assuming molex pins on transport motherboard are
clean), a decent servo controlled capstan and it does 7-1/2, 15 and
30ips without screwing around with mods... plus varispeed and
synchronizability if you need it.

The Ampex AG-440-C 8track. These are substantially more mechanical to
deal with and some adjustments can be really annoying. These came with
synchronous motors that depend on the power line frequency to run on
speed and they do not varispeed. Others (most but not all 440C's) I
have seen will have a servo'd capstan motor than can vari-speed. This
is a two speed machine and parts are getting harder and harder to find.

The 3M M23 8track is both a far simpler machine than either Ampex or MCI
and it has a sound that is quite good. It has a very solid sound and
speaks with authority. 3M machines are also becoming a little hard to
support but I kept my M23 and deal with it... also a no varispeed
machine and two speed only - almost all are 7-1/2 and 15ips

Scully 280's WITHOUT syncmaster sounds okay... oh - overdubbing with
this and the M-23 can be a bitch but the Syncmaster seems to interfere
with the sound and it's a horrible mess to maintain. 280's are fairly
borderline and may best be avoided... the 280B is actually not terrible
- almost forgot about that one. The 280B may have a servo motor and may
be 15/30 but unless there is an obvious varispeed control assume it is a
syncro motor and not a servo motor.

Otari made a number of dedicated MTR90 1" 8track machines. If you can
find one you would have a machine that could be upgraded to 2" 8track -
like one we did for Sound Station Seven in R.I..... but this is
expensive up front and you may never do the upgrade. The stock playback
head on the MTR90's both 1" and 2" have their low frequency head bump up
a little high and it is more bumpy than, say, any of the machines I
mentioned above... on the other hand they tend to work

Studer made A-80's and A-800's as dedicated 1" 8tracks, 3M made a 1" 8
version of the M-79, a few Ampex MM1200's I THINK were done this way -
these are all upgradable to 2" if you want to spend a lot on media...
but it sounds real nice

There are others but Soundcraft, ITAM, Otari (MX-7800) and probably
Scully should be avoided.... I'd say look for an MCI but no one else
may agree

I have owned an MX70 8track one inch for a couple of years now and I am very happy with it.15 ips is nice and fat and 30 ips has a nice top end on this machine.If you get one and find it to be noisy when you pop it into record(frying bacon in a wind storm)it should be an easy fix.Mine just needed new relays at about 5 bucks apiece,two per channel.good luck